The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) was originally developed as a rudimentary “one to one” communication system. That is, it is best suited for connecting a first calling party to a second called party based solely upon the identifying information associated with the called party (i.e., a destination or called telephone number). As the number of PSTN users increased, so did the need for enhanced communication abilities and features such as conference calling, providing communications to multiple users at a single location (i.e., Private Branch Exchange), call waiting, call forwarding and the like. Wireless communications further extended the abilities of the PSTN for enhanced freedom of movement. Smartphone technology (i.e., portable handheld telephony devices) has helped to further advance the ability of the PSTN to provide additional features and services to a subscriber by virtue of their ability to run applications beyond basic telephony (i.e., web browsing, email management, global positioning/mapping/location services and the like)
Voice over IP (VoIP) is a technological development in the field of telecommunications that is utilized to transmit voice conversations over a data network using the Internet Protocol (IP) rather than the dedicated PSTN network. Entities (either businesses or individuals) use VoIP by purchasing and installing a minimal amount equipment (a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) device) to access a VoIP service provider and subscribing to this telecommunication service. After the VoIP service has been subscribed to and depending on the level of service requested, an entity can make phone calls to other VoIP subscribers or to PSTN customers and access a number of features associated with the VoIP service at a reduced cost than that of the PSTN. However in every instance described above, a party must subscribe to a communication provider to gain access to the features, devices and privileges offered. A party usually finds himself having to subscribe to multiple services and obtain multiple devices to gain access to all possible modes of communication and content that is desired. There has been no advancement in exploiting the benefits of VoIP services by those who have previously only been subscribers of PSTN/mobile services and desire to maintain their current PSTN-based mobile devices (e.g., smartphones).
Therefore, there is need in the art for the ability to access features of one type of communication provider via another without having to obtain a new device and other related ancillary administrative steps.